Anneke's Tea Party

On Wednesday, we took Anneke to Queen Bee's so she could have her birthday party and have a fancy tea party too. She wanted the dad's and brothers to come too so all of the family that was visiting attended. I have to say the dads were good sports but it really was not their 'cup of tea.' We did have a good time though and they treated Anneke like a princess.

Princess Anneke eating her Princess plate.

From left to right, Luke, Marcus and Nathanael. Luke tried on several hats, including this lovely cloche. It actually made the rounds from Uncle Carl to Aunt Heidi and then to Luke.

Andy wearing one of the only men's hats we could find.

Heidi wearing the cloche and Luke wearing a Panama hat with beads (to keep the bugs away).

The 'snooty' Pfiesters. This is the one and only time you will ever see Carianne and Carl being 'uppity'. You can tell we had a good time.

Carlye and Noah eating their Prince and Princess lunches.

A sweet picture of Carlye.

Outside in the Gazebo where Anneke opened her presents. Her birthday literally went from Wednesday until yesterday - when it was her actual birthday. We did the same thing for Bella on her 6th birthday. I guess this is what we do for 6th birthdays in the family. Carlye asked if this was a tradition. That made me laugh. In many ways Bella's and Anneke's birthdays were duplicates. I wish you could see Anneke's and Carlye's fingers and toes. She and Carlye had a manicure and pedicure just before the tea party and were beyond delighted with how beautiful they felt and looked. We will get those pictures posted soon. We had a most wonderful week. All of the grandchildren got along so well. They are truly best friends - which is wonderful. Hopefully it won't be long before we have all of our family together. That would be heaven.

The children just before they ran down the hill. The end of the party.

Tuesday Book Reviews

When our daughters were young, they were very caught up with Mary Downing Hahn's books. I found one of the girls books and decided to bring it to Carlye. On our trip down, I read it, so I am counting it. I had forgotten how delightful and fast moving her books were. I think I might pick some more up. The book that started all of the girls on the journey was "Wait 'til Helen Comes" . It was so controversial that I had to read it as the PTO president in order to even get it in the library. There were still some church groups that wanted it banned but it won the Texas Bluebonnet Award the year it was nominated.

Susan Wittig Albert is the author of my favorite China Bayles series. I was tickled to see her author a new series. I thoroughly enjoyed this new book set in the 1930's. She is an amazing writer. I highly recommend it.

This is book 4 of the Acadia Series. I will read them all.

Book 3 of the Acadia is just as wonderful as the other two. I recommend it.

My Husband's Birthday

Today is my husband's 59th birthday. We have been together for a very long time. I want to wish him a most Happy Birthday. He is an amazing man and I am glad I have signed on with him for the long haul.

Tuesday's Book Review

This book took me about 30 minutes to read. It is about a great-grandmother that had been put in a nursing home and how her great grandson realized a need. It was a beautiful book. I highly recommend it. It made me realize that sometimes as adults we rush to quickly to think we know what is best.

I am a big "Percy Jackson" fan. Rick Riordan has done it again with this new series. It is Egyptian mythology. I was not as familiar with the Egyptian gods but Rick Riordan explained them as he went along without slowing the story. It was a great read. This is a book geared for middle school and high school age readers but anyone will enjoy it. I highly recommend it.

"The Meeting Place" is the beginning of a trilogy of books of two women, Louise and Catherine. One is French Huguenot and the other is Colonial British in Acadia. The British are doing everything in their power to push the French out, even though the French were there first. It was a beautiful but heart wrenching story. I recommend it.

"My Theodosia" is about the daughter of Aaron Burr. It is an older book. My mother loved this book but again I am not sure why. Theodosia was married to man that loved her but she still had an affair with another man that everyone knew about. My mother read so much that sometimes I think she got her titles mixed up.

"Devilish" is a book by Maureen Johnson. This is written for grades 9-12 and was a fun book of devoted friendship and the angst of peer pressures. It is about demons and and good vs. evil. It takes place in Providence, RI. Clyde asked me if I have to read books about places I know. This was a pure coincidence but made it more fun to read because I knew right where they were talking about. Maureen Johnson also wrote "Suite Scarlett" that I enjoyed so much few months ago. She truly understands teenagers. I recommend this book. It was a fun, quick read.

Been Busy

It doesn't look like I have been blogging but I have. Our family has a recipe blog site and I have been dumping my favorite or most requested recipes onto the site so they are there for 2 reasons. #1 When I make something at Church and someone requests the recipe I can immediately make copies of it and #2 when I visit our daughters I have the recipes they want at my fingertips. It seemed the smart thing to do. Someone was telling me that they did something similar and then printed the blog site at the end of the year. We just might have to consider doing that come December for our family members. My sister and her daughters are contributing off and on too so it truly a family website. For those of you that are interested the site it is OurFamilyRecipes.blogspot.com I hope you enjoy the recipes of our family. There are recipes that I blogged last year but there are new ones too.

Tuesday's Book Review

"Prayers for Sale" takes place during the 1930's in a mining town in Colorado. Sandra Dallas takes a bit of time building her story and because of that some people give up on her before they get started. But if you are patient you will learn some amazing things and read a beautiful story. Sandra Dallas is one of my favorite storytellers. She actually researches her stories from journals and local libraries.

I loved watching the Carol Burnett Show when was young and first married. It was one of the best variety shows on TV. This was a fun book of reminiscing.

This was a cute book with the funniest twist at the end. It is a novella and took me less than an hour to read.

I love Janette Oke's books. This is really a novella. It took me less than 30 minutes to read it. It was a sweet gift of love. It reminded me of Omi and Pam in many ways.

I am not sure who recommended that I read this book. It was Okay but the author is male and he wrote a female protaganist. The problem was his female was very masculine. I had to keep reminding myself that it was a girl. All in all it was a very odd read.

Happy Birthday Dutch!

Dutch's birthday was actually yesterday - the 4th of July but our day was was quite busy and so I didn't have a chance to blog about our youngest grandchild. The above picture is during the visit of our first meeting. It was the week before his baby blessing two years ago. Since Pam and Chris were living in Pennsylvania, we used to go and see them about every 4 or 5 months and we loved it. Now they have had the audacity to graduate from school and move to Utah! I can no longer get my grandbaby fixes anytime I want one. Now I have to plan when I want to see him. That's Okay - life moves on. I just cannot believe that it has been 2 years and he is a big as he is. We love you Dutch! Have a wonderful 3rd year!